Golf cart driven by 13-year-old hits Fun 'N Sun crowd
None of spectators at the Clearwater parade are seriously injured in the accident, which is under investigation.
By JENNIFER FARRELL
Published May 5, 2003
CLEARWATER - Darlene Anderson never knew what hit her.
One minute, the 53-year-old home health aide from Largo was standing on the side of the parade route, stretching to catch beads for her granddaughters.
A second later, she hit the pavement face down, the victim of a runaway golf cart.
"I got rammed in the back," she said Sunday. "I felt a sharp pain, and I went down."
Turns out, Anderson was hit by a city golf cart driven by a 13-year-old Tampa girl at Saturday's Fun 'N Sun night parade. Anderson and four others, including a 9-year-old boy and a 10-year-old girl, were taken to Morton Plant Hospital for treatment. None was seriously hurt, but the parade was delayed for roughly half an hour as rescue workers flocked to the scene.
"It was total chaos," said Freda Drake, whose 9-year-old son, Thomas Clayton, was taken to the hospital by ambulance. "She was just mowing people down."
The girl, who is not being named by the Times because of her age, was not charged. She attended the city-sponsored parade with a city employee who acts as her big sister as part of the Big Brothers Big Sisters program in Hillsborough County.
Another city employee, Kurt Kraus, who works for Clearwater's television station, C-View, had allowed the girl to ride with him in the cart along the parade route. He left her alone briefly while he was interviewing people for a taped broadcast to air later, according to city spokesman Doug Matthews.
When Kraus motioned for the girl to drive toward him, she hit the accelerator. But the cart, which Matthews said must have been left in reverse, lurched backward into the crowd.
"It happened in a split second," Matthews said.
Drake, 36, of Largo, said no one had time to get out of the way.
"We feel like we were hit by a Mack truck," she said. "You don't think of golf carts like that."
She said her son was taken to the hospital on a backboard, but emerged with skinned knees and some bruises.
Sunday, Anderson was recovering at home with a tire track on her leg. She said the accident never should have happened.
"A 13-year-old girl driving that? I don't think so," said Anderson. "There's too many things that can happen. Like this."
The accident, which happened about 8:15 p.m. near the corner of Cleveland Street and Myrtle Avenue, will be reviewed by police.
"Our investigation continues," Clearwater police spokesman Wayne Shelor said Sunday. Matthews said he would watch the city's footage of the parade to see whether the incident had been captured on film. If so, he said, the city will turn the tape over to police.
Matthews, who was working at the parade Saturday night, said he knew at the time the girl was riding in the cart. "It wasn't the best decision," he said Sunday.
"It was a lapse in judgment," Matthews said. "There's really nothing else that can be said."
